I have to be honest. I hate the Price Pfister Genesis faucet in my kitchen. The detachable sprayer hand nozzle has broken off in my hand twice. Then last week I noticed a pool of water on the kitchen counter. I thought one of our Brita pitchers was leaking, so I cleaned up the water and didn’t think twice about it.

A few hours later the water was back again. I put Sedagive? on alert and sure enough, the damn faucet was leaking.

I called a plumber out and he offered to replace the sink: for about $400. “That includes labor,” he said, as if that made it much better.

I put in a call to Price Pfister to request replacement parts. I was hoping that the plastic cartridge that controls the water flow was to blame. Luckily Price Pfister has a lifetime warranty and they sent the parts out free of charge. Not so luckily, the faucet went from slow leak to “holy crap” less than 24 hours later. Sedagive? duct-taped a plastic bag around the base to funnel the leaking water into the sink basin. We turned the water on underneath the sink when we needed it, but otherwise left the water off until the spare parts arrived.

Only one of the three replacement parts came with any instructions, but there were no overall instructions on how to replace the cartridge on the Genesis faucet. Here’s what I did.

What You’ll Need

Philips head screw driver

Flat head screw driver or knife

Channel locks or similar squeezy-tool thingy

Price Pfister part #941-7110, #950-0130, #950-0160, #974-5050

Instructions

Take the Price Pfister label off. There’s a screw behind the little Price Pfister name plate. Pry it off with a flat blade screwdriver or perhaps a knife.

Unscrew the faucet handle. You’ll need a philips head screw driver.

Take the faucet handle off and unscrew the metal fascia.

Use the channel locks to unscrew the existing plastic cartridge retaining nut. I was nervous about deforming the plastic too much, but don’t worry about it. You’ll use the brass piece when reassembling your faucet and you can just throw this away. Did your faucet leak all over your wood floor like mine? In that case, squeeze the shit out of the plastic nut in revenge.

Remove the old cartridge. Mine was completely chewed up. There were little plastic shavings all over the base of the cartridge, and a large amount spilled onto the sink.

Put the larger rubber washer around the base of the brass cartridge housing. My faucet didn’t have this part originally.

Gently push the washer into the base of the faucet. Don’t push the washer in too far. You want the washer to be flat.

Put the new cartridge in. It’s keyed to only go in one direction.

Screw the brass retaining nut on. Tighten it with your hand, then do another half turn with the channel locks.

Put the smaller rubber washer around the top of the retaining nut. This one goes on more easily than the larger washer.

Screw the metal fascia back on.

Reattach the handle. Don’t over-tighten this, as the plastic lever of the cartridge is already prone to wear and tear as evidenced by my old one.

Put the Price Pfister name plate back on. Or not. No one will know except you. However you might need your memory jogged when you have your next problem with your Price Pfister faucet.

Work complete. Notice the new washer, which wasn’t there before.

Parts Comparison

One thing I noticed was that the replacement parts Price Pfister sent me seemed to be more durable than the originals. The retaining nut washer was originally a thin sheet of plastic. Now it’s a more formidable feeling rubber.

The biggest difference is in the cartridge retaining nut. The original one was a soft plastic. The newer version is brass.

Conclusion

So far, so good. Not even a drop about three hours later. I’m going to turn the water off over night just in case. With a Price Pfister faucet, every day is an adventure.

Wow! Thanks!! I didn’t get PF parts. Went to Home Depot and spent $20 for a new cartridge. Didn’t feel like waiting, though that brass retainer would have been nice. I had to “gently” remove the soft plastic one. Great pics and instructions!!! Thx again!!

This is really great with the photos and all. One thing on my PF faucet the 6 sided brass retaining washer in down in the body with the cartridge below that. I have tried everything I can throw at it and cannot get the brass retainer washer to unscrew out. So did you use some $30 special socket to get it loose?

Nice Post — I am trying to order parts for a similar job. Did the 2 black o-rings come with the cartridge ? They do not appear as separate parts on the Price-Pfister website. Did you use silicon grease to lubricate them first ? CVE

You are good person, helpful to us novice Price Pfister repair people! I appreciate your taking the time to photograph the procedure. Otherwise I’d not have easily performed the changeout. The satisfaction of eliminating the slow nuisance leak is great. Thanks for your efforts.

I have the exact same faucet with the exact same problem. It started with low or no flow through the pullout and that led me to discover the faucet was leaking down into the cabinet through the base. I have the parts on order through PF which is how I came across this site. Thanks for th instructions!

Thank you, my dear Dr F! The inside of my cabinet is totally water damaged, but I fixed the faucet, thanks to your lovely, detailed instructions.

If you call Pfister, they should send the parts for free if you are the original owner. Ask for the cartridge, brass nut and a plastic socket tool to remove the plastic nut. (As far as i can tell, the older models – pre ’97- had the plastic nut and the newer ones have the brass nut.) I didn’t get the black o-rings – hope it doesn’t matter. It took me three calls, with three increasingly condescending men, to get all the parts. The last gentleman actually told me to get my husband to help me. I explained that my husband is only a photographer, while I studied mechanical engineering at Stanford.

In my case, the plastic socket tool was rubbish, since the old nut was so limed up, it wouldn’t budge and eventually stripped on the inside. WD-40 didn’t help. After reading many sites, I found a plumber who swore by PB Blaster, as a solution for this problem (purchased at a hardware store). It is nasty toxic stuff but it worked. And this site gave me the nerve to go ahead and trash the plastic nut with the channel locks, in order to get it off! I used a bit of plumber’s grease on the new brass nut, hoping to prevent it getting stuck again.

Now I have to go call the plumber, because the cold water shut-off is so rusty that it started to leak when I turned it back on. What? You were expecting a happier ending? That’s adorable!

Great directions. No washers for me either. That plastic ring is a mofo though. I had to use channel locks to grip the brass cartridge holder while muscling the plastic ring off with locking pliers, after adding a few drops of canola oil to try to loosen it up. What a pain. Took about 20 minutes. Pro tip: don’t take the set screw the whole way out.